George Burns and Gracie Allen make their U.S. radio debut in 1932 as regulars on the Guy Lombardo Show.

Burns and Allen met in the early 1920s, when Burns was performing in a vaudeville act on Long Island. Allen, a stenographer who had performed with a vaudeville company herself, had come backstage to visit a friend in the show. The pair hit it off immediately and soon developed their own comedy act. In their first performance, Allen played the straight character, and Burns was the funny guy, but they switched roles after their first performance when Gracie's artless delivery won more laughs than Burns' jokes. They toured the country with their act for three years and married in 1926, landing a lucrative touring contract just one year later.

The pair made their first radio appearance in England in 1929. Later that year, they were invited to fill in for ailing comedian Fred Allen in the comedy short I Wanna Buy a Tie for Columbia Pictures. Paramount Pictures soon contracted with them to appear in feature films.

Meanwhile, CBS had hired them as resident comics for Guy Lombardo's popular radio show. Listeners fell in love with Allen's gentle, ditzy character, and CBS launched a half-hour show, The Adventures of Gracie, in 1934. The show's name changed to The Burns and Allen Show in 1936 and ran until 1950, achieving Top 10 ratings almost continuously. The pair launched a TV series that ran from 1950 to 1958, and they appeared in more than a dozen movies during their 35-year career together in what became one of the most successful and beloved comedy acts in history. Allen retired after a mild heart attack in 1958 and died six years later, leaving Burns without a partner for the first time in four decades.

Burns continued working in television, theater, and nightclubs and also making monthly visits to Allen's grave. Burns returned to the movies in 1975, winning a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for The Sunshine Boys. He was in his 80s when he appeared in Oh, God! in 1977 and was more than 90 when he made 18 Again! in 1988. He wrote many books, including Gracie: A Love Story, a tribute to his wife. His footprints, handprints, and cigar print are marked in cement in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, and he has three stars on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame for his work in radio, film acting, and recording. Burns died in 1996 at the age of 100.